During a computer system operating system boot sequence, upon completion of the boot process several applications execute based on a startup process list, e.g., a Registry Run key section of Microsoft Windows operating system available from Microsoft Corp, Redmond, Wash. Other operating systems (e.g., Linux) include an analogous structure. All the processes, e.g., executable software applications, in the startup process list begin execution at the same, or substantially the same, time thereby causing the system to overload the central processing unit (CPU) and/or input/output (I/O) capability of the computer system. At this point, the computer system appears to be non-responsive, e.g., the computer system is unable to respond rapidly to user-initiated actions. The period of non-responsiveness of the computer system continues for a period of time until all the startup processes release both the CPU and I/O usage. Additionally, in some instances the input/output mechanism, e.g., disk throughput, of the computer system is maximized during process startup by the operating system.